101 Dalmatian Street: A Deity Among Dalmatians

Chapter 17: The Deadly Dance, Part 2

"Disney?" I ask.

"Basically, the people who've fallen from grace." Kai elaborates.

"It's on the Conceivable Plane, though it's vast, it's only been a mostly Inhibited region until recently. And I have YOU to thank for it. The little sneak peek I got earlier was much appreciated." He says with a black-toothed grin.

"Yeah, right, cut to the chase, I know I've been here, but HOW'D I even get here?" I ask.

"Something I admire about you, Rictor, is that you embody the means of sacrifice to its fullest. More so than your other Kin brethren."

"Yeah. It was either you or that other guy with the winged symbol mask who taunted me about it before you made me a suffering vegetable."

"Suffering vegetable, that's a new one." He says, chuckling.

"Okay, how's this for a new one? How was I even able to communicate with you or anyone else whenever I was asleep?" I interrogate him. "Like, how'd you even know me, or my family were there even though we weren't?"

"Dunno, all I did was sense your presences. Though I'd assume that your Astral Selves must've somehow separated from your bodies when you were dormant, I'm not exactly the expert on that." He turns to Cato with a smug grin. "Want to entertain us, Carling?"

"Haven't exactly done that for a while. Not even any of your beeswax." He retorts.

"Besides, rather want me to entertain YOU a little longer?" I sarcastically add against Lee.

I know I'm trying to refrain from asking excessive questions, but the whole idea of 'Astral Selves' is still worthy of a raised eyebrow.

"No, the anticipation is more than enough. Though I only wish to see your friends bring you up to speed on what's really going on, that time is not now." Lee says, snapping me out of my thoughts.

He gets up from his little bench he fashioned out of a sliced down tree, and Warps away his little whetstone, and adjusts the collar of his blazer.

He then slices the air, causing ripples of wind to soar.

"Today. The Damned. Joins. The Fray."

"BRING IT ON!!!!!" I shout, taking my stance and flaring up my battle instinct.

He stomps the ground, causing particles of the soil to fly out as he launches himself in a near-weightless sprint towards me, my friends follow in rapid pursuit.

I charge towards him and meet him about halfway. He slices at me horizontally, but I slide under it. He hacks at me again, lower, but I use my momentum to somersault over it and launch off my hands. I mid-air kick him but he blocks it with the flat end of his sword.

Using my momentum against me, funnily enough, he forces me away as he engages my friends. I make it a point to land gracefully and sprint back to the fight.

Lee slashes at Kai and Cato, but the former dodges and the latter deflects it with his metal wings. Cato tries to parry with his sword, but winds up having to use it to defend against Lee as he uses that same power I saw in my vision. He manifests the black and white negative power in his hands, and BLASTS Cato back with it.

Miraculously, besides just some admittedly minor cosmetic damage, he's relatively unscathed due to his giant sword.

Cato is either excessively strong to be able to lift that thing, or it's just remarkably light.

I dunno, I've never seen it before outside of a vague RPG game, same for Lee's sword...

Cato's slightly smoking form flies towards me, reaching out his free hand. I grab it, and spin him around in a 180, flinging him back towards our opponent.